A durable medical equipment item is the top issue in Region C under RAC Connolly Inc., so don't be surprised if other home care topics start making it onto RACs' hit lists. CMS lists "DMEPOS provided during an Inpatient stay: (DMEPOS Automated Review)" as the top Region C issue in its newly issued summary report for the RACs' third quarter. "Medicare does not make separate payment for DMEPOS when a beneficiary is in a covered inpatient stay," CMS notes in the report. The other three regions have hospital topics listed as their top issues. RACs collected $233.4 million in overpayments during the quarter and returned $55.9 million in underpayments, CMS says in the report at
www.cms.gov/Recovery-Audit-Program/Downloads/FFSUpdate.pdf. Region D RAC HealthData Insights collected more than twice as much as any other RAC at $112.2 million. Meanwhile, if you do end up with an overpayment demand from a RAC, you won't [...]